On Feb. 9, 2018, Egyptian army spokesman Col. Tamer El Refai announced that the Egyptian armed forces had launched the largest-ever offensive against Islamic terror groups in Sinai, the Nile Delta and the western desert close to the Libyan border. The Egyptian air force quickly carried out around 30... Read more

In reaction to Libya claiming all of the Gulf of Syrte as its territorial waters, in January 1981 U.S. president Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. Navy to conduct a “freedom of navigation exercise” in that part of the Mediterranean Sea. During the exercise, there were dozens of tense encounters... Read more

The Soviet MiG-21 is one of the most widely-produced and -exported fighter jets of all time. In the United States, the MiG-21 is perhaps best known for hunting American warplanes over Vietnam. The single-engine fighter is equally famous for its participation in various wars in the Middle East over... Read more

On May 26, 2017, armed men traveling in pickup trucks gunned down 28 Coptic Christians and wounded 26 as the Christians were on their way to visit a monastery in Egypt’s Minya province. Islamic State has claimed its responsibility for the attack. That same evening, Egypt announced that its... Read more

In the early 1950s the Egyptian government acquired the production license and manufacturing equipment and plans for the Swedish m/45 submachine gun — the “Swedish K.” The state-owned Carl Gustaf factory had developed the m/45, a blowback submachine gun chambered in nine-by-19-millimeter, in 1944 and ’45. The Egyptian ministry... Read more

Egypt’s got plans for Libya — to eradicate the Islamists and set it under the firm, autocratic control of a general-turned-hero. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Egypt followed exactly the same model two years ago. In 2013, then-general and defense minister Abdel Fattah El Sisi ousted... Read more

Egypt’s military junta is going on a shopping spree for weapons. Remember those French amphibious assault ships originally intended for Russia that are now sitting out to dry? Cairo’s generals have their eyes on them, too. The French-built Mistral-class amphibious assault ship, or helicopter carrier, is a formidable vessel. Capable of carrying... Read more

We here at War Is Boring are well aware of the power of the United States’ Freedom of Information Act. But despite FOIA being an American law, foreign governments can exercise an impressive amount of influence over the process. At the beginning of August, we went looking for official... Read more

It was around 4 a.m. when Hamada received the text message he had been dreading. “We’re coming. Get out.” The message came from a number he did not recognize, but he knew who had sent it and what it meant. Before Hamada had deserted from the army a month... Read more